Ex-Tar Mulroy believed to have jumped to his death

Vince Mulroy always stood out, in the classroom, on the football field, and in track and field.

The last time his former Newport Harbor High track and field coach, Bob Hailey, saw Mulroy, the athlete grabbed the microphone.

Hailey said he remembers the day so well. He was at his retirement party in 1996, when more than 250 people showed up to Newport Beach.

“I had guys from all over the world come,” Hailey said before his voice cracked when he talked about the person who stood out, along with him on that special day at the Tale of the Whale restaurant, where everyone celebrated Hailey’s 37 years as a teacher at Newport Harbor.

“[Mulroy] took over the microphone and said some pleasant things.”

That was the final time Hailey heard from Mulroy, a 1975 Newport Harbor graduate and one of the school’s finest students, wide receivers, throwers, runners and jumpers.

The leap Mulroy made last Thursday is one Hailey said he never imagined him taking.

Hailey said Mulroy, 52, committed suicide, jumping off the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.

When Hailey, 74, got a call from a Mulroy family member Saturday, two days later, he said it felt like he lost a son.

“Those track kids are all like sons,” Hailey said. “He was one of the best kids ever. I coached track and field for 19 years. He was the best decathlete I had all for all those years. He was intelligent. He went [on a] full ride to Stanford for football [and played for the late Bill Walsh].

“He was suffering from depression. That’s usually the way it is, smart, intelligent people just seem to reach a point in their life and they don’t see a way to get better.”

Hailey said it has been hard on those Mulroy left behind.

A funeral service for Mulroy will be held up north at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Ross on Friday at 5 p.m. Hailey said he won’t be able to make it to Marin County, but he will attend a local reception remembering Mulroy on April 18.

Brian Theriot, a teammate and friend of Mulroy, said the location is still to be determined.

“In many of our lives we never come across a purely honest, totally genuine, and consistently caring human being as Vince Mulroy,” Theriot said. “As a friend to us all, there will never be another Vince Mulroy.”

— David Carrillo Peñaloza